The International Olympic Committee has awarded the 2022 Olympic Winter Games to Beijing, China, and the 2020 Youth Olympic Winter Games to Lausanne, Switzerland.

Both event hosts were decided during the 128th IOC Session held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Beijing beat out the other bid from Almaty, Kazakhstan, by a close vote of 44-40.

"I congratulate Beijing on becoming the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Games, and congratulations to Almaty for putting forth an excellent bid," said IIHF President and IOC Executive Board member René Fasel.

"Both bids were very strong but I am happy to see Beijing as the 2022 host because it gives the IIHF a great platform to promote the sport of ice hockey in Asia. Now with the next two Winter Olympics taking place in Korea and China, we have a tremendous opportunity to open up new horizons for our sport and to showcase ice hockey to a new generation.” ...

An IIHF member since 1963, the status of China’s ice hockey teams regarding automatic host qualification is still to be determined. The men’s team has yet to qualify for an Olympic tournament, but the women’s team participated in three Winter Games in 1998, 2002, and most recently Vancouver 2010. The nation’s best result came in Nagano 1998, when the team put up big wins over Japan and Sweden in the first round, but ultimately lost 4-1 to Finland in the bronze medal game and finished in fourth place.

China’s men’s national team is 38th in the IIHF World Ranking, while the women’s team is 16th.

Bettman will be surrounded by lawyers acting for players suing the league over concussions suffered while playing, who will be asking him all about what he and the league know or believe about repeated head trauma, and what he did or didn’t do to protect those players.

Bettman’s deposition promises to be the most significant development so far in the concussion lawsuit that is plodding its way through the U.S. legal system.

Like all that have been deposed before him — including Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan — Bettman’s testimony about what he knew and what the league knew about the effect of repeated head trauma on players will be sealed, hidden from public scrutiny.

U.S. district court judge Susan Nelson will rule — perhaps before NHL training camps begin in September — whether to unseal the depositions to allow the public to know fully what both sides have been arguing.

When the Vancouver Canucks were able to augment their centre position through the Brandon Sutter trade this week, they hit upon one of the proven formulas of improving a team in the NHL.

The difficulty in pulling this off more often, of course, is getting yourself into the right position and then finding a team which has the assets you covet, and having stumbled into same the position the Pittsburgh Penguins found themselves in before this trade.

Positioning yourself to take advantage of teams that are over the salary cap and must pare down before the start of the season is something the Canucks have done successfully in the past, and other teams as well have found this a winning formula.

After all, when you are making a trade with a team that has to make a trade, the odds are very much in your favour that success will be forthcoming.

The Coyotes still have a few items left on their wist list -- namely a puck-moving defenseman -- but General Manager Don Maloney doubts any more changes will hit the roster before it is set to debut at training camp in the fall.

"There are still a lot of players out there," Maloney said Thursday. "If anything, I can see maybe some tryouts coming our way. The good thing for us we still have roster flexibility. We have some payroll flexibility, but I'm just adamant not to shore up a roster with any more one-way contracts unless it's a very good deal."

After watching the talent brewing in the pipeline at the team's prospect development camp earlier this month, team brass is eager to see how many youngsters can legitimately contend for a job in the NHL. If the candidates become slim, the team isn't opposed to exploring outside options at that point.

But the possibility of prospects competing for roster spots is enticing; actually, despite also coveting another winger, Maloney said he'd probably rather add a mobile defenseman instead of a winger because of the exciting youth currently in the team's forward group.

DetroitRedWings.com's Craig Peterson was tasked with penning an article featuring Jakub Kindl's "Red Wings highs," and by the time you get through the list of the times that Kindl came off the bench and produced, you start feeling downright sympathetic for the plight of Mike Babcock's least favorite defenseman, 2014-15 season version:

Appearing in just 35 games, the Red Wings’ defenseman achieved new goal-scoring highs and provided a major boost in production from the blue line. In his fifth season, Kindl came into the lineup and had an immediate impact on games.

A healthy scratch for the majority of the season, Kindl spent much of the season retooling his game and honing his skills in practice. When called upon though, the veteran defenseman came into the game with a splash producing some of his best performances after being sidelined for an extended period of time.

(In practice and in Grand Rapids)

On Feb. 21, in a game against the Dallas Stars, Kindl was thrust into the lineup after Kyle Quincey was scratched with an ankle injury. The game was Kindl’s first glimpse of action in nearly two months, as he had been out of the lineup for the previous 20 games.

Showing no signs of rust, the 6-foot-3, 199-pound defenseman scored back-to-back goals just 1:15 apart in the third period, propelling the Wings back into the game and tying it at 4-4. Kindl’s contribution would be critical, as the team needed every bit of offense to overpower the Stars, 7-6 in overtime.

Peterson continues, with more scratch-to-star narratives and praise for Kindl from one Brendan Smith...

And as such, Clark believes that this is a sign that the Griffins will be celebrating their 20th anniversary by changing their primary logo:

Twitter user @FlamezGaming Tweeted what appears to be a screen capture of the game's team select menu, which was later retweeted by SportsLogos.Net. The menu, in which teams are identified by their primary logo, featured the Griffins' "Griffzilla" logo rather than their traditional emblem.

The Griffins organization did not respond to a request for comment about the possible change.

The Griffzilla logo, so named because it features a stylized Griffin climbing over the Grand Rapids skyline reminiscent of Godzilla, has been used on the team's red alternate jerseys since the 2012-13 season. The jersey on which is appears is a clone of the Washington Capitals' home jersey.

MONTRÉAL – Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin announced on Thursday that the team has agreed to terms on a two-year contract with forward Alex Galchenyuk (2015-16 to 2016-17).

Galchenyuk, 21, played 80 games with the Canadiens in 2014-15. He set personal highs in goals (20), assists (26) and points (46). Three of his goals were tallied on the powerplay and scored one winning goal. The 6’01’’, 198-lbs forward maintained a +8 differential and was assessed 39 penalty minutes, while maintaining an average of 16:25 of ice time per game. Galchenyuk added four points (1 goal, 3 assists) and a +1 differential in 12 playoffs contests.

Galchenyuk two-year deal with Habs worth $2.8 million average per year

Quebecor Inc. says it's recruiting partners for its bid to bring the Nordiques back to Quebec City.

The media and telecom company said Thursday it has opened talks with some sponsors and signed contracts but has yet to secure another investor willing to help foot the US$500 bill it costs to launch an NHL expansion franchise.

"Submitting this application is one more step towards our ultimate objective of making sports an additional growth segment," president and CEO Pierre Dion told analysts on a conference call after the company posted its latest financial results.

"We will soon be approaching potential partners, which we believe will attract high interest levels."

1. USA Hockey is broadcasting its World Junior evaluation camp games on FastHockey.com, and TSN is going to air all of Team Canada's summer evaluation camp games (Joe Hicketts will represent Canada, and Evgeny Svechnikov will represent Russia) on TSN TV next week:

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